Neve Campbell, Kevin Williamson and Courtney Cox return for another Ghostface whodunnit that is messy but mostly entertaining

Whether you love or hate the Scream franchise, it’s hard at this stage not to at least respect it. Even without the subterranean bar set by other lazy slasher sequels (stalk, stab, repeat, yawn) it’s a series that has now been around for 30 years and tasked itself with extending an ongoing narrative of insanely convoluted soap, finding new ways to comment on the horror genre and appealing to a savvier generation of younger fans (the sixth film managed to be the highest-grossing in the US). If nothing has rivalled the 1996 original, it’s still hard to argue that there’s been an objectively bad Scream movie, even at the franchise’s less effective moments, there’s been a buzz of effort and energy present.

The run continues, albeit with perhaps more notes than usual, with Scream 7, a scrappy, passably entertaining new chapter that limps to the screen with wounds on show. The original plan had been to continue the story of the Carpenter sisters, introduced in 2022’s hit relaunch, but after the shameful firing of star Melissa Barrera who dared to speak out about a genocide, it was back to the drawing board. Said drawing board was then just a headshot of Neve Campbell, the original Scream queen, and a bunch of dollar signs next to it as the actor had rightfully turned down the sixth film over what she said was a lowball offer. Some seven million reasons to rejoin later (according to reports) and she’s back front and centre, along with many amusing “why weren’t you in New York?” references, and with some familiar, and confusing, old friends.